Thursday, 30 December 2010

Cath and I did a four mile walk in the fog this morning. There were an amazing amount of other nutters keen athletes out trying to walk and run off the Christmas excess. I decided to take my camera but not the new one, the 400D is smaller, lighter and a lot easier on the neck muscles!

Because the cats don't trust me to do anything competently unless one of them is supervising, Mrs Pod was sent into the study to make sure I put on my trainers correctly. She didn't think much of my technique and voiced her very critical opinion of it at regular intervals.

I've been thinking about whether to start a photographic project for 2011... but what to do? I've seen the 365 photos one, the 52 weeks in black and white one, the self-portrait a week one... is anyone else planning on committing to a project? Any ideas?

I meant to go out and take some Christmas lights shots last night, but the fog was very thick and it was very, very damp. Hopefully I'll manage it before the weekend. Instead I took just a few random images... Cath and I are off for a yomp around a country park this morning, can't take the 7D with me though, it's too heavy! Yes I'm pretty pathetic...

Charlie (of course), who thinks I should do a 365 days of Charlie project...

He doesn't look too happy here, probably something to do with Mrs Pod

invading his personal space (he likes to have a total exclusion zone of about 20 feet

around him)

How wonderful is this salt and pepper set? The sheep even have a little green

mat to stand on for grass. I bought them in Lakeland intending them

for my sister (well half-sister to be precise, not sure what the other half is...:O))),

Saturday, 25 December 2010

Well the new camera has been used so much today I think I have repetitive strain injury in my finger. I'm still not sure what I'm doing with it most of the time but am having fun trying. The cats had four little Christmas stockings with goodies in including catnip amoebas (they were meant to be catnip fish but as I made them they looked a bit further back on the evolutionary scale than that). I did try and get some shots of the cats with the stockings but the light was dreadful so very few were in focus. Things were slightly more successful when I opened the little parcel my friend Sandra had sent them. Inside were three bright mice that Pepper immediately attacked. Anyway, here are the pics. Hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas Day.

'Christmas - we haz it...'

Charlie through the banisters...

...and after getting his paws on the catnip amoeba

Mrs Pod...

Pepper not doing anything bad at all for a change...

...and here. Although she was seen hitting Mrs P on the head at one point.

Friday, 24 December 2010

This gave me such a headache to take - think it was me trying to get to grips with a new camera and the light reflecting off the crystal confusing said camera... am now going to have large glass of red wine and relax..

Excuse the excitement. Santa has been early and left me my new camera, my Canon 7D and I LOVE IT! It is seriously impressive and the cats and Ben have already had their patience severely tried by me shoving it in their faces and taking their pictures. I also took David's when he was asleep but he refused to allow me to post it. So what I want to know is now I've got this to play with, who's going to cook Christmas dinner? Beans on toast anyone? :O)))

Posky. His photo was the first one taken as any new camera

has to be first given The Blessing of the Grey Cat if it

is to take successful pictures. He's beginning to get

a little vexed with me here.

These images are seriously grainy because I bumped up the settings

to the highest ISO (I think it's 6400) to try it out, and also because the

light was rather dim and I didn't want to use the on-camera flash.

Anyway, I still like them, and I love that you can

see my reflection in Mrs Pod's eye!

Pepper - who was very co-operative and rolled about with her

paws in the air in a winsome manner...

Charlie - 'You point that thing at me one more time

and I bite your knee-cap, capiche?'

Happy Bunny with new camera - image flipped

so it says Canon and not nonaC or something similar.

As I'm now off to work and then meeting Cath for coffee, I expect there'll be quite a few photos taken today, probably of people shoving their hands in front of the lens and telling me to 'GO AWAY!'. More later...

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Considering the name of this blog, I actually seem to write very few words on it - the camera has taken over! Anyway, to somewhat rectify this I thought I'd post something about the books I'm either reading, or that I'm hoping to read over Christmas and the coming weeks. Never one to go for light-heart frothiness at this time of year, my reading choices seem to be verging on the downright gloomy at the moment.

My current read is Nemesis by Jo Nesbo. Nesbo writes Norwegian crime fiction, which is dark, complex and wonderful, with plots that are more twisty-turny than a twisty-turny thing. Of course because I'm perverse I've read them in the wrong order - it still doesn't spoil the enjoyment of the adventures of Nesbo's chief protagonist Harry Hole, the alcoholic loner police detective. My friend Sandra always reads them too and we have a great time discussing who we think has done it, and why Harry has such unsuitable girlfriends.

Amongst the goodies arriving from Amazon over the last couple of weeks was Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, a ghost story set in the Arctic. What is it about Christmas and ghost stories? Is it all down to A Christmas Carol? Talking of ghost stories, there is also on my tbr pile The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions. Less well known than the likes of M R James, Onions (1873-1961) wrote over forty novels and story collections. Mention of M R James has reminded me to re-read Casting the Runes. One of my favourite supernatural tales, and the basis for the film Night of the Demon, which is a great film although the demon himself is a bit of a damp squib. Think early Doctor Who monster... (yes I will be watching Dr Who on Christmas Day, even though I still prefer David Tennant).

I also want to start re-reading the Charlie Parker books by John Connolly. These are crime stories too, but with an element of the supernatural (sort of a Chandleresque Paradise Lost), and Connolly writes like a dream. He also has the best two side-kicks ever in the form of Angel and Louis the two gay hit-men (some of their dialogue makes me laugh out loud).

Mention of Milton (how's that for alliteration?), means poetry. I have various poetry anthologies that I like to dip into so will be doing that at various points. I usually grab a poetry book whilst sitting eating breakfast (if I have time to sit - often I'm standing in the kitchen trying to make my lunch at the same time). That's the great thing about poetry - it's usually short and can be managed in small bites (much like my breakfast). One of my tutors for literature, a specialist in poetry, once said he couldn't understand why Middlemarch was so long as if it were a poem it could be fitted onto one page. I don't think he was a fan of novels...

Non-fiction wise I have Magnetic North about Sara Wheeler's travels in the Arctic, because you can just never have enough snow and ice at this time of year, and for some moments of spiritual reflection there's a book on Buddhism. Last of all, as Santa is bringing me a new camera (weather and Royal Mail permitting), I also hope to be perusing the Canon 7D instruction book. It took me about four years to get to grips with the last camera so I might be able to post pictures from it by 2015!

Monday, 20 December 2010

Still smarting from the lack of George Clooney on Saturday night, I asked David if he'd like to go to Stratford upon Avon with me yesterday. They had a lot more snow than we did and considering it's less than a week until Christmas the place was amazingly quiet. We took the opportunity to have coffee in the theatre then went up to the top of the new tower, it has wonderful views made all the more stunning because of the snow.

Facebook

About Me

I'm a UK based photographer - this blog accompanies my Barbara Jackson Photography business and contains more of my images, along with assorted ramblings on food, cats and photography techniques. All photographs are copyright Barbara Jackson Photography. Please don't post or use them without my permission or I'll not be best pleased and bad karma will be yours eternally.